Danny Kelly

Danny Kelly was born on 23 December 1956 in Islington, north London, to Irish parents. He attended Our Lady of Sacred Heart school in Eden Grove and then St Aloysius College, a Catholic school in Highgate. He grew up a devoted supporter of Tottenham Hotspur and a passionate music fan, the two loves that shaped his working life.

Kelly began writing for the New Musical Express in about 1983 and became its editor in 1990, succeeding Alan Lewis and holding the post until 1992. He went on to edit Q, the British music monthly, and was named British Magazine Editor of the Year for his work there before leaving in 1995. He also launched the sports monthly Total Sport.

In the mid 1990s he hosted Under the Moon, a live late night television sports chat and entertainment show that often ran for three or more hours. In 1997 he founded the 365 Corporation, best known for the football website Football365, and he left the company at the end of 2001. In 2006 he helped launch Videojug, a how-to video site, and he launched The Times' first weekly podcast, The Game. He presented a sports show on BBC London and hosted a weekly football podcast with Danny Baker until December 2007. He also had parts in the films Divorcing Jack and The Football Factory.

From December 2007 Kelly stood in on talkSPORT shows including Hawksbee and Jacobs, and he fronted the station's evening programme during Euro 2008 before signing a permanent contract in August 2008. Over the following years he presented The Full Time Phone-In on Saturday nights, a Sunday evening show with former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan, the Monday night PressBox with Sun football editor Shaun Custis, and Trans-Europe Express, a Sunday night programme on European football. In 2013 he and Danny Baker were reunited for a Friday evening show on BT Sport. From August 2021 he presented The View From The Lane, The Athletic's Tottenham Hotspur podcast.

Kelly's long-term partner was the journalist and critic Alex Clark. In 2018 the couple moved from London to rural Ireland, from where he often broadcast remotely, and in December 2021 he announced that they had married. Friends and colleagues described him as generous with younger broadcasters: Simon Jordan said his own broadcasting career began with Kelly, who "nurtured me", and Laura Woods credited him with her early development.

On 18 March 2026 Kelly told talkSPORT listeners that he had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and would be stepping back from broadcasting. In that final appearance he urged listeners: "If you know something is not quite right in your body, for God's sake, go to the doctor. Get yourself checked out."

He died on 10 November 2026, aged 69. Danny Baker wrote that his "great friend, supreme broadcaster and funniest man I ever knew, Danny Kelly, died yesterday afternoon", and talkSPORT announced the death on 11 November, saying: "We are heartbroken to share that our much-loved friend and colleague Danny Kelly has died, aged 69." Tributes came from Tottenham Hotspur, the British sports media and many talkSPORT colleagues, including Ian Abrahams, Danny Murphy and Laura Woods. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of writing.

Kelly was one of a generation of NME writers who carried the paper's irreverent voice into wider British media. As an editor he led two of the country's best known music titles, and as a founder of Football365 he was an early figure in online football journalism. To radio listeners he was above all a storyteller whose knowledge stretched from 1960s pop to European football, and his line "I love football, Stan. I love it" was shared by talkSPORT in tribute after his death.